Alan Duncan wants to be President

With the Conservatives still to return to office, the diminutive Alan Duncan appears to be getting ideas above his station.

Mandrake by Tim Walker

12:37AM BST 04 Jun 2008

The shadow secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform tells Mandrake that he is already planning to do away with the elaborate title of the ministry when his party takes office.

"It's a load of old nonsense and we're going to change it," he says at a reception in Whitehall. "The old description was much better."

The MP for Rutland is also considering being known by the older title, the President of the Board of Trade, which was in use from 1786 to 1963, and is currently the secondary description of the post. "Yes, I like the idea of that," he says with a broad smile.

Lord (Michael) Heseltine was the last secretary of state for trade and industry who liked being addressed by the older title, and received a good deal of opprobrium from the Labour party as a result.

Perhaps such an "old" Tory idea has something to do with the news that Steve Hilton, the architect of the modernised Tory Party, is departing for California.